Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez

Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez (20 October 1882-15 May 1966) was President of El Salvador from 2 December 1931 to 28 August 1934 (succeeding Arturo Araujo and preceding Andres Ignacio Menendez) and from 1 March 1935 to 9 May 1944 (interrupting Menendez's terms).

Biography
Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez was born in San Matias, El Salvador in 1882, and he formed the National Republican Party of El Salvador in order to run for President in 1931. He later joined Arturo Araujo of the Laborist Party of El Salvador, but, due to military discontent with Araujo's failure to pay the military acceptable wages, the military seized power and installed Martinez as President. In 1932, Martinez had thousands of Native American peasants massacred after suspecting them of backing the communist leader Farabundo Marti. Martinez was initially popular for extending the vote to women, enacting social security laws, and managing the economy during the Great Depression, but he lost the support of the oligarchy over his raising of the export tax in 1943. After he announced that he would continue in power without elections, an uprising broke out against him, and he resigned on 9 May 1944 in the face of a nationwide general strike. He went into exile in Honduras, where, on 1966, he was stabbed to death by his driver at his villa; his driver was the son of one of the men killed during Martinez's dictatorship. He was 83 when he was murdered.